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Kobe Takes to Facebook to Welcome Lakers’ New Superman

The Los Angeles Lakers dramatically altered the NBA landscape Thursday night by reportedly agreeing to terms in a trade that will land them superstar center Dwight Howard – also known as Superman. Friday morning, Lakers legend and current alpha dog Kobe Bryant took to Facebook to welcome the new addition from London, where he’s competing in the Olympics with the United States basketball team.

“Well, it looks like Superman has found a home,” Bryant’s post begins.

“The Lakers landed a piece that will hopefully carry the franchise long after I’m gone,” the note continues. “I have spoken to Dwight Howard already and we are locked and loaded to bring back the title. Wow, what a summer Jimmy and Mitch have had so far. Unreal! I’m focused on our semifinal game vs Argentina but I had to pause for a few to send you my thoughts, in case you were curious..”

The message gained about 70,000 Likes in the hour after Bryant posted it.

Bryant has been much more active and engaged on Facebook this summer, particularly during his travels with USA basketball. He has 13.7 million fans on the network. According to the Wall Street Journal, he writes all his status updates and messages himself, relying on support staff only for proofreading and actual posting.

Also of note about Bryant’s Facebook activity: He’s one of the few high-profile American athletes who focuses more on that platform than he does on Twitter (he still hasn’t opened a Twitter account).

But Bryant is far from the only NBA and USA basketball player who’s on fire on the social web this summer. Many of his national team compatriots have been tweeting regular updates, and their goofy Instagram photos of sleeping teammates, Segway tours and other miscellaneous moments have gained widespread attention. Check out some of the team’s most entertaining Instagram shots here:

USA Basketball Instagrams: Ridiculously Awesome

1. via Kevin Durant (Instagram: @trey5)

When a couple shots of players including Oklahoma City Thunder teammates Durant and James Harden checking out Barcelona by Segway hit the web Wednesday morning, we all learned an important lesson: Supercool basketball stars do dorky tourist things, too!

2. via Chris Paul (Instagram: @cp3)

Traveling can be taxing. Point guard Paul caught the bearded wonder Harden knocked out on a bus earlier this month in an early installment of a popular Team USA Instagram genre: Teammates Asleep on Busses and Airplanes. Paul tweeted the photo with the hashtag #GotEm.

3. via LeBron James (Instagram: @kingjames)

When the team came across a dead ringer for power forward Kevin Love, James had to tweet an Instagram shot of the two together.

4. via Kevin Durant

Even LeBron, the NBA’s reigning regular season MVP and Finals MVP, isn’t immune to the Teammates Asleep on Busses and Airplanes craze. #GotEm! In the background, Carmelo Anthony expresses his support for Durant’s work.

5. via Kevin Durant

The squad took this pretty epic group photo in front of Barcelona’s National Museum of Catalan Art. Then, lots of them Instagrammed it.

6. via Deron Williams (Instagram: dwill8)

Point guard Williams lent some nice context to the Segway tour with this two-panel gem of Harden and Durant.

7. via LeBron James

Okay, so maybe NBA players are way cooler than us on Instagram, too. Here’s James and Anthony looking B.A. on the bus.

8. via Chris Paul

Like us, however, they do Instagram and tweet group photos taken at fancy meals…

9. via Carmelo Anthony (Instagram: @carmeloanthony)

…as well as photos from not-so-fancy meals.

10. via LeBron James

Here’s another way NBA stars are like us on Instagram: If you follow multiple people who go do the same thing, and that thing is cool, your feed will probably get flooded with nearly identical photos processed through different filters.

11. via James Harden (Instagram: @jharden13)

Beach shots are popular no matter who you are. “Beach Thugging wit Russ!!” Harden captioned this photo from Spain, referencing Thunder and Team USA teammate Russell Westbrook.

12. via Kevin Love (Instagram: @kevinlove7)

A 7Up can featuring 1992 Larry Bird? Too awesome not to Instagram! Love is a funny dude, too. Here’s how he captioned this shot: “I don’t usually have soft drinks before a game but…well, you get the idea…”

13. via LeBron James

Even NBA players know everything looks better in HDR. Here, James shares a preview of the special throwback uniforms the team wore for a recent exhibition.

14. via Deron Williams

Even people look cooler in HDR. This shot from Williams shows Paul, Anthony and Tyson Chandler courtside at practice.